Terrie Klinger, Ph.D.

Professor, School of Marine and Environmental Affairs

Co-Director, Washington Ocean Acidification Center

Adjunct Professor, School of Aquatic and Fisheries Sciences

Research areas

Terrie Klinger is Professor in the UW School of Marine and Environmental Affairs and serves as Interim Faculty Director of Washington Sea Grant. Trained as a marine ecologist, her research focuses on applying ecological theory to practical management solutions, including ecosystem-based approaches to managing natural resources in the ocean, the ecological effects of environmental stressors, such as ocean acidification and habitat loss, and how rocky intertidal communities respond to and recover from disturbance. The Pacific Northwest is her primary study area, including the Puget Sound, the San Juan Archipelago, and the outer coast of Washington, and she maintains a time-series of ecological observations in Kasitsna Bay, Alaska. She was the principal investigator on a National Science Foundation IGERT award– shorthand for Integrative Graduate Education and Research Traineeship – focusing on how oceans are changing worldwide and what that means to the human communities connected to them. She has been recognized for her combination of marine science and public engagement with the UW’s Outstanding Service Award, was named Naturalist of the Year by the Western Society of Naturalists and was honored with the Seattle Aquarium’s Conservation Research Award. Dr. Klinger received her Ph.D. in Biological Oceanography from Scripps Institution of Oceanography.

Dr. Klinger teaches:

  • SMEA 500: Introduction to the Human Dimensions of Global Change in the Marine Environment
  • SMEA 510: Topics in Marine Ecology
  • SMEA 550: Marine Social-Ecological Systems
  • SMEA 550: Marine Affairs issues in Puget Sound (Field Course)
  • SMEA 591: Marine Science in the Coastal Zone

Selected publications

2021 Samantha A. Siedlecki, Darren Pilcher, Evan M. Howard, Curtis Deutsch, Parker MacCready, Emily L. Norton, Hartmut Frenzel, Jan Newton, Richard A. Feely, Simone R. Alin, and Terrie Klinger. Coastal processes modify projections of some climate-driven stressors in the California Current System. Biogeosciences, 18, 1–20. https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-18-1-2021

2021 Keil KE, Klinger T, Keister JE, McLaskey AK Comparative Sensitivities of Zooplankton to Ocean Acidification Conditions in Experimental and Natural Settings. Front. Mar. Sci. 8:613778. doi: 10.3389/fmars.2021.613778

2020 Bednarsek N, Newton JA, Beck MW, Alin SR, Feely RA, Christman N, Klinger T. Severe biological effects under present-day estuarine acidification in the seasonally variable Salish Sea. Sci Total Environment: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2020.142689

2020 Galloway AWE, Von Dassow G, Schram JB, Klinger T, Hill TM, Lowe AT, Chan F, Yoshioka RM, Kroeker KJ. Ghost Factors of Laboratory Carbonate Chemistry Are Haunting Our Experiments. Biol. Bull. 239: December 2020

2020 Moore KM, Allison EH, Dreyer SJ, Ekstrom JA, Jardine SL, Klinger T, Moore SK and Norman KC. Harmful Algal Blooms: Identifying Effective Adaptive Actions Used in Fishery-Dependent Communities in Response to a Protracted Event. Front. Mar. Sci. 6:803. doi: 10.3389/fmars.2019.00803

2020 Ekstrom JA, Moore SK, and Klinger T. Examining harmful algal blooms through a disaster risk management lens: A case study of the 2015 U.S. West Coast domoic acid event. Harmful Algae 94: 101740 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.hal.2020.101740

2020 Prentice, C., Poppe, K. L., Lutz, M., *Murray, E., Stephens, T. A., Spooner, A…and Klinger, T. A synthesis of blue carbon stocks, sources, and accumulation rates in eelgrass (Zostera marina) meadows in the Northeast Pacific. Global Biogeochemical Cycles, 34, e2019GB006345. https://doi.org/10.1029/2019GB006345

2019 Moore S, Varney A, Norman K, *Cline M, *Blair K, Klinger T. An index of  fisheries closures due to harmful algal blooms and a framework for identifying vulnerable fishing communities on the U.S. West Coast. Marine Policy 110. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.marpol.2019.103543

* Student Publication